


Disappearances

by Inkandaquill



Series: Spilling secrets [1]
Category: Shadowhunters, TSC, Tda, The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare, the dark artifices
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-08 14:45:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19871356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkandaquill/pseuds/Inkandaquill
Summary: Ella Ravenscar has always had a knack for solving misteries and crime and when she came to the Scholomance she did not doubt that she would make good use of it but she never expected to be some part of the great chain of events that would eventually lead her to unmasking one of the greatest criminals Shadowhunters have ever seen. Alongside her friends she must discover and search for clues, go through nerve-racking adventures and discover ageless secrets all whilst hiding from a misterious figure and her teachers that would do anything to stop her from uncovering the truth and narrating her stories to all of the Centurions.





	1. Disappearances

Dear students,  
Something of great danger has occurred in these halls. Something that could threaten our very form of life and I was forced to keep it quite but I won’t anymore. I must share it with you before it is to late for all of us.  
As many of you know, there have been certain disappearances this last week which our teachers have dismissed as students going out on missions or expulsions but I can assure you there is more to the story than that.   
Two weeks ago the first person disappeared, Alan Starkweather, or as many of you call him, the whisper, for his infamous reputation as a gossip. This Mr. Bloodtruth, our principal, said was a terminal expulsion from the centre for Alan’s smart mouth but I didn’t believe it. There are barely any Centurions anymore, why expulse one just for being a gossip? It doesn’t make sense. Just as the particularly foul mark I found the very same day the expulsion was announced under his bed didn’t make sense. It was a mark of the darkest magic. A mark of summoning. Now we all know Alan was prone to ramble but break the law? He wasn’t the one for that. So I decided to dig up a bit more and guess what I found. Pieces of glass scattered inside the trash can next to his bed. What could they possibly be? I couldn’t keep my curiosity away and so I picked one shard and analyzed it and ,right there, I found remains of a faerie potion, the strongest of the kind, seance of dream, a faerie potion (I know them well, my grandmother was one of the folk) that blind all of your senses for the night. Why could Alan possibly need something like this? No, it was definitely not his, not to mention that the potion was ilegal to sell. The only possible explanation was that someone had used the potion to douse Alan and his roommate, Liam, for the night so that no one could suspect of a crime. After all, who would suspect anything if the only witness was unconscious during the night?It was the perfect plan. Not to mention that Liam had told me that he didn’t remember anything about that night, he had been drugged, for sure. But...who has taken Alan? Why would someone take Alan? His...blood perhaps? But for what? It was certain that a demon was involved, the summoning mark couldn’t mean anything other than that, but something must be controlling it. Demons were of a destructive nature, they ravished everything in their path but the room had been clean (well, clean by the standard of the boys) and unblemished and only one boy had been taken. Yes, something was controlling the demon yet what could it be? And why did he want the boy? I didn’t know yet but I was determined to find out. Even if the figure had taken precautions to hide his tracks.   
And then, a week later, Elena Branwell disappeared. And, guess what, the same mark was not under her bed but draw in the underside of her mattress, our villain had distinctly become more discreet after last time, it seemed. However, the same vials that had contained the potion had been thrown so carelessly out of the window, leaving pieces of glass stuck in the rock ledge beyond, glistening quite visibly under the sun. And if that weren’t enough Hazel, Elena’s roommate, didn’t remember a thing of what had happened the night before, just as Liam had. Yes, we were facing a smart villain indeed but not smart enough for me. The pattern was beginning to appear and Mr. Bloodtruth had excused Elena’s disappearance with ‘she had a mission she must accomplish’ yet he didn’t tell us when she would come back. I knew that if I went to Bloodtruth with the information he would dismiss it as frivolities, attention-seeking reports, anything to keep up his prized reputation, so I kept it to myself still and went to find more pieces of his puzzle around the school.  
For many days I didn’t find anything yet yesterday I was roaming around the library at night, relaxing after helping Ms. Loss in the infirmary when a boy crashed through the doors, panting as if he was running for his life, which he had, in fact, been doing as I browsed the shelves. I recognized him at once, Anush, and saw that a figure cloaked in darkness was following him, not close enough to see it properly but not far enough to be safe from it’s rage. Could this be our villain? Could Anush be his next victim? Yes, it must be and there was no way I was going to let my opportunity go. I catched Anush as flees through the endless shelves, covering his mouth to prevent the figure from hearing us and carrying him silently across the room till we reached the oak and climbed up to the lowest branches, hidden by the foliage, waiting for the figure to pass away. It was then when from our hiding spot we saw the figure enter, long cloak trailing over the floor, look around, dark, endless gaze going upwards for a second, Anush gripping my arm furiously. It seemed like if the void had paused to look at us, it’s gaze piercing through the coat of leaves that his us and then it extended a pale arm, reaching upwards towards the stars but then the doors to the library banged open again and a demon emerged, holding in its slimy tentacles the body of Francisco Wentworth, Anush’s roommate, and the three disappeared in a flash, the void of the figure’s eyes finally apart from us, though I didn’t doubt I would see it again. But before parting it let a brutal, low sound...a human sound, and told the demon in a surprisingly humanoid voice, “Leave him with the others. I’ll hunt the wayward boy.” Was it a man? Why would a man need shadowhunters? Or perhaps a warlock?   
But regardless it vanished and once it was gone Anush told me everything. He had been sleeping when he heard the sound of footsteps and felt the cold bite of glass and the sweetness of a liquid that could only belong to faerie slipping into his lips. They had tried to drug him but fortunately he had been polishing his weapons before sleep and had forgotten to stash them away and so he was able to slash the man and run away while he chased him, before the potion could do it’s effect. However, he became drowsy (he had only drank but a drop of the potion but in faerie even the tiniest bit could drive you mad) and so he fell to the effects of the liquid and I left him there, safe and parted to find out where the missing where.  
At first I was lost but when I went down the stairs to find if the demon was in Anush’s room I heard something, I was the only one, of course, who could for I was not only wearing a sound enhancement rune but I have natural faerie hearing and I could hear faint screams from down the lowest levels of the Schoolmance, muffled by the stone floors. I immediately ran in their direction, which lead me to the deepest of levels of the building, rooms I didn’t know existed, staircases so dusty and narrow that one couldn’t walk without clouds of dirt blinding the path, grand rooms with threadbare tapestries of Raziel and moth eaten curtains and carpets and ended up in what looked like a dungeon of old. Dried blood coated the walls, not all of it red (probably it had been somewhere where old shadowhunters had once tortured downworlders, the topical brutish way of shadowhunters) and skeletons that were held up by silvery spider webs. No wonder this was cut off to students. However, the door farthest from me had been propped open and the screaming, now clearer, echoed through its walls. I approached, whip in hand, and pushed it open to find a demon looming over three still figures, Alan and Elena unconscious, Francisco screaming through a gag. It turned towards me, a Shax, the same we had seen in the library, mouth glistening a bright red and that’s when I noticed Francisco’s wound and it’s attacked. However, it was slow, unprepared, surprised and I cut it down with a strike., its remains disappearing to the realm of where it had comes from. I untied the victims, drawing iratzes here and there, dabbing some cuts,the demon’s master no where in sight.  
Francisco became unconscious not long after due to blood loss and was a another dead weight as I brought the group up (one by one) to the habitable zone of the fortress. I left them in the only place where they would be safe, Bloodthruth’s office, yet I went undercover, for I know that he would send me away if he knew what I had seen and just as I predicted the next morning he sent the students away to their families to hide what they had experienced in these halls. However, the figure was no where in sight as I went and recovered Anush. It had disappeared. The victims may be safe now but we weren’t safe by far. Why had the master picked specifically these students? Why hadn’t he been there with his victims in the cell? Why did he want the kids? Who or what was it? Too much questions, too little answers to be found. I do not know the figure’s motives yet, nor its plan but I will find out. I swear. And know that I have hated the truth with you my companions I urge you to keep and eye open, to keep you weapons at hand and your own secrets from being spilled, lest the figure might use it against you.  
-E.R. 


	2. Dimmet Tarn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Synopsis of series: Ella Ravenscar has always had a knack for solving misteries and crime and when she came to the Scholomance she did not doubt that she would make good use of it but she never expected to be some part of the great chain of events that would eventually lead her to unmasking one of the greatest criminals Shadowhunters have ever seen. Alongside her friends she must discover and search for clues, go through nerve-racking adventures and discover ageless secrets all whilst hiding from a misterious figure and her teachers that would do anything to stop her from uncovering the truth and narrating her stories to all of the Centurions.

I lament to inform you students that I, Tiberius Blackthorn, must take over the information this week for Ella is indisposed today. As I do not know most of the story behind this event I must narrate some parts of the story through Ella’s private recounts she has written in her diary since October 3rd of this year:  
“Dear diary,  
There is something in the lake, I can see it lurking below the dark waters. Figures, shapes. There are things inhabiting Dimmet Tarn and I must seek what they are.   
I have no doubt that this might be connected with the blood marks around the Lake. I found them yesterday as I told you beforehand, subtle for those who do not look throughly at them. It was animal blood, fortunately. I had to analyze it, of course, I couldn’t trust anything after what had happened last week. However I would have dismissed it if it were not for the strange pattern the drops of blood where distributed. All near the lake, directing towards. Something was dragging animals into the lake, something was slaughtering them, eating them. But the lake isn’t inhabited. Or...could it be? But of it were in that case, how had no one noticed them before? And...could these creatures, whatever they were, have been placed there by someone. An outsider perhaps? But why would anyone want that?”  
The next diary entry comes from the 5th of October  
“Dear diary,  
This night I was out on a mission with Hazel to hunt down a demon that had been roaming the nearby forests, having injured various students already in its rage. We followed its track till we reached the lake, the stark blackness of Dimmet Tarn still as a sheet of glass tinted onyx under the moonlight. The demon had gotten away, hiding in the dense foliage beyond us, it’s tracks disappearing at last as a soft drizzle of rain washed them away for eternity. Unable to catch its tail again, not having anything belonging to the thing to track him with a rune, we decided to go back to the Scholomance, our mission failed and our steps lethargic and sloppy for we would have to try again tomorrow to find the thing, once the moon was out again to light our path and the demon’s trail.   
However, we rounded the lake, reaching the side closest the path that would lead us home, if the fortress could ever be called as such, and then something emerged from the surface of the lake. It was impossible to discern what it was in the darkness, though the shape had a resemblance to a hand. A palm, long, spindly fingers splayed over the dew-covered ground that stretched towards us, the skin tinted with a strange metallic hue, so different from the void of the lake. It was like if death came for us, the devil ascending from the colourless hell that was the lake. The hand reached out, grabbing Hazel’s ankle, making her lose her balance and strike the ground, the blow leaving her unconscious on the ground while the thing pulled on her, trying to sink her to the bottom of the lake.  
It hadn’t seen me, fortunately, and as I pulled on the girl the thing, surprised, freed her and sank back down in a splash of charcoal water. I carried Hazel back to her room (apparently me taking unconscious people upstairs is becoming a regular hobby of mine, one which I don’t find special pleasure in) and told no one what I had seen. It might have been a delusion caused by my lack of sleep or the darkness around me but something had tried to drag Hazel away, something had knocked her out and I was sure that was no invention of my mind. There was something lurking under Dimmet Tarn’s water, a creature that was killing animals and perhaps had intended to kill us, confusing us for deer of another creature of the woods or perhaps knew of Hazel’s true nature and had wanted her for it. But why would that creature want us, if not to feed itself? It sounded too much like what had happened last week, the figure. But I had seen that man, human, unable to live under liquid and that hand had not belonged to him. A recruit perhaps, or another creature with a completely different agenda, after all, it couldn’t want to capture Hazel, taking her underwater would mean drowning her. Regardless, the reason that creature had attacked her did not matter much, it was dangerous and something had to be done for and the lake had been empty for so long no one would believe me if I said that I had seen that creature there and therefore no one would do a thing, except me. Tomorrow I’ll come for the thing. Tomorrow, I’ll find it.”  
Today, October 7th, as you may know, occurs two days after this recount but as there are no recounts of the 6th from Ella’s part I must tell what follows from my point of view.   
On the night of the 6th I was down in the forest with Anush...taking Irene for a stroll. We were at the edge of it, next to the clearing the lake was in, completely alone. We were about to get back to the school as the clouds above turned a deeper colour and the wind become more than just a gentle breeze, signals of a storm, when we heard a sound coming from the path towards school and we hid behind the enveloping canopy of trees that surrounded the lake. The figure entered the clearing, the night making it impossible to see more than its outline, and it strolled towards the lake. The clouds seemed to get closer as it approached, the first drops of rain sliding down the leaves above and slamming against our skin. We knew of Ella’s latest story, Anush had even had the honor to protagonizing it, after all, and a figure, cloaked and alone, looking as it was sneaking around at night, seemed too much of a coincidence for us. It crouched at the edge of Dimmet Tarn, disturbing the waters with a pale hand, it’s back turned towards us and I crept towards it, my sword raised, ready to strike at any second if the thing attacked, Anush behind me with an arrow locked in place and the the figure slowly turned towards us, moonlight illuminating for a bare moment its features and there we found...Ella? What was she doing here? She looked alarmed to see us, in her defense, we were holding an arrow and sword to her head which in my experience makes it easy for someone to get panicked, at least someone with common sense, and she ran away from us, rounding the border of the lake. That’s when I realized something, we had seen her but she did not know who we where. I tried shouting to her, trying to stop her escape from us, lest that she might slip and injure herself but she did not hear a thing, she was already too far away for us to stop and prevent.  
Just as Anush tried to dash after her to get her to safety and perhaps get some answers of why might she be here, at night and alone, roaming around Dimmet Tarn something, a hand it seemed, grabbed her ankle, something that had emerged from the water. And then that hand was followed by more that tried to bring her down to where they dwelled. She resisted, fighting the things that tried to desperately grab her and bring her down but they were two many with their silvery and metallic hue and eventually they overpowered her, bringing her down to the depths of the water with a loud splash, Anush unable to throw an arrow in the darkness lest that he would hit Ella by mistake despite his night vision rune and I too far away to be of any help.   
I ran to the other boy and as we met I stripped of my weapons, Anush remaining by the lakeside in case anyone came or I was captured too by the pack of creatures. And so, leaving all weight behind I jumped into the lake, leaving a remaining dagger in my self just in case.   
I swam down and down, gripping my witchlight in my hand to light the way through the impenetrable waters till I reached what looks like an opening in one of the sides of the lake, a...cave. Upwards, the storm had started to brew more throughly, lightning crashing against the branches of trees and thunder viabrating through every bone of his body, the rain beating loudly against the lake, threatening to overflow. Just as I was running out of air I stepped into the cave, the walls growing with a strange phosphorous moss, that was strangely sealed, oxygen running clean through it. It was spelled, that was clear enough, but why would someone spell a cave to be able to breath in it? What would be the point?   
I advanced through the cavern till I reached the end of it, a dark opening where a small, silvery pool was found int the middle and aquatic plants covered the walls, as decoration, mixing with the spines of long-dead fish, the combination dizzying. Ella lay there, bound and gagged, and surrounding her where those strange silvery creatures, water bubbles surrounding their heads like halos. Merfolk, and a dangerous type of them by the looks of it.   
“What are you doing here, human?” one of the creatures asked, it’s accent nasal, barley understandable.  
“I have come for her.” I advanced cautiously to where Ella surrounded by the creatures.  
“Good luck with that...” the same mermaid started, pulling out a bone dagger from under her but he was cut of by someone entering the cave, boots striking the rocky floor.   
“What is this,” the voice was familiar and when Ty turned he found an imposing figure before him. Kieran, his navy blue hair strikes with a pure white streak, the King of the Unseelie Court. Anush stood beside him, clothes soaked and clearly both surprised by the merfolk and intimidated by the royal beside him.  
“You Majesty...” one of the folk started.  
“We were tricked! It was a man, a human, who deceived us. He told us that you had allowed this, kidnapping the children from here to bring them to him for compensation.” The confession had come from one of the mermaids that leaned against the wall of the cavern. Wait, a misterious figure and...kidnapping students! It must be the man from before!  
“Stop it, I want to hear none of your lies. You will come immediately to the court again for trial there. Come on, my soldiers will escort you to the surface. Tiberius,” he tipped his head in acknowledgement, “thank you and you friends for helping me find these rouges, I am forever in you debt.” He took a step back, turning around to make his back face me. However, he hesitated, turning around again, “How doth your brother, Mark, fare?”   
Ty smiled faintly, remembering Mark’s relationship with the King, “He does well in   
Los Angeles, with Cristina, though he misses you.”  
Kieran blushed faintly at the remark his white streak turning a light blue and thanked us again, picking Ella up and carrying her to the surface whilst we swam upwards till we hit the surface.   
Once we where on the shore, Kieran turned towards us as his guards tied up the prisoners. “I would appreciate if you didn’t tell this to anyone too important, someone who could talk to the Clave members who are not so sympathetic as the Consul, I would not like this accident spreading around the wrong circles. Of course, I won’t mind if you tell your friends and if you can, please send my regards to your brother, Tiberius.”  
“I will.” (You, my companions, don’t count, of course, though I can’t say the same for Mr Bloodtruth, so keep quiet)  
He lay Ella on the floor and went away with the rest of the folk assembled there, leaving the two of them soaked and alone, and we picked her up again, carrying her to the school through the path that ran along the forest. Thankfully, the storm had subdued, only a drizzle of rain falling on us now, though we were soaked by the lake.  
“You know the Unseelie King?” asked Anush, awed as we hiked up to the Scholomance.  
“Well, let’s say it’s complicated.”  
We reached the building and sneaked in, going up to the infirmary where Ms. Loss was looking over some kids. We brought Ella to her and now she still remains unconscious up to this morning. Kieran sent us a letter regarding the trial and we found out that apparently the merfolk where brought to the lake at night by a figure that claimed to be working with the King. In exchange for their services bringing students to the spelled cave and then leaving them unconscious till he picked them up he had promised them wealth and gold for the rest of their days. There was no doubt that this had been the same figure from before, now acting through different means to achieve the same end. But using Unseelie folk to do this, so close to the very school? This man was planning to start a conflict in between faeries and shadowhunters and perhaps even a war in between the courts for the Seelie court would not stand with Unseelie faeries bringing down the entire reputation of the folk. Two birds in one shot. This figure intended to brew something dangerous in the land, putting the Scholomance at the very heart of it. And we must be careful, if we don’t wish to endanger our very home.  
Now, this episode must end but keep your weapon at hand, your eyes open and your secrets from being spilled, lest the figure might use them against you.  
-T.N.B.


End file.
